06 October,2026 04:53 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
CM Fadnavis said the platform would list projects in areas including education, healthcare, water, employment, environment, parks, beautification and poverty reduction. Pic/X (@CMOMaharashtra)
Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday launched Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) 'Participate Mumbai', a new digital platform aimed at bringing citizens, businesses, corporate organisations, NGOs and experts together to support the city's development.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was also exchanged between the civic body and Samagra, an organisation working on governance and public service delivery, an official statement said.
Fadnavis said Participate Mumbai was not merely a platform to raise Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds, but a mechanism through which the government, municipal corporation, corporate sector and social organisations could work together on development projects.
Fadnavis said the platform would list projects in areas including education, healthcare, water, employment, environment, parks, beautification and poverty reduction.
Companies, NGOs and citizens interested in contributing to a particular sector would be able to select projects according to their interests.
Organisations that already have their own plans for working in a specific area will also be able to present their proposals through the platform.
Fadnavis said the initiative would help reduce the gap between the civic administration and the corporate and social sectors and speed up development work.
Fadnavis said the focus of CSR initiatives should not simply be on how much money is spent, but on the number of people benefited and the impact created.
He said CSR partnerships could bring new technology, modern management methods, better monitoring systems and more flexible working methods to government projects.
Combining government machinery with CSR partners could therefore help deliver more effective results, he added.
Fadnavis said the BMC had undertaken major work in infrastructure but needed to strengthen interventions in education, healthcare and nutrition.
He pointed to problems such as malnutrition, stunted growth and wasting among children in some parts of the city, particularly in slum areas and poorer communities.
He said CSR partnerships could be used to improve access to nutrition among children. Better nutrition, he added, has a long-term impact on children's brain development, educational performance and immunity.
The MoU with Samagra aims to make the BMC's administration more efficient, transparent and citizen-focused.
Fadnavis said government procedures needed to change with time, pointing out that many processes continued to operate in ways that had been designed years ago.
He said unnecessary stages in administrative procedures should be removed through Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) so that citizens could receive services and solutions more quickly.
The Chief Minister said the state government had attempted to make around 1,100 services available online. An analysis found that around 200 of these services were not being used by citizens.
He said improving the delivery of around 45 to 47 services and schemes that are widely used could help provide faster and better services to around 90 per cent of citizens.
The restructuring of these processes is in its final stage and will be implemented soon, Fadnavis said.
Fadnavis also said the BMC's building department had introduced an artificial intelligence-based system to scrutinise building plans.
He said the administration should aim to reduce human intervention in the process, with the eventual goal of moving towards zero human intervention where possible.
Such a system, he said, could improve the ease of doing business in Mumbai.
The Maharashtra CM also called for a change in the mindset within government departments, saying officials should be willing to adopt new methods instead of relying on procedures simply because they had been followed for many years.
Mumbai Mayor Ritu Tawde described the launch of Participate Mumbai and the MoU with Samagra as an important step in the city's administrative history.
She said the initiative would give institutional shape to public participation in Mumbai's development.
Tawde said CSR should not be limited to providing funds but should focus on creating measurable change.
She said the platform would connect the willingness of Mumbai residents, companies, organisations and NGOs to contribute with the civic body's needs.
She also stressed the need for a responsive administration so that ordinary citizens do not have to make repeated visits to BMC offices and receive timely, transparent and secure services.
BMC Commissioner Ashwini Bhide said a city with a population of more than two crore requires continuous improvement in its administrative systems to provide fast, transparent and citizen-focused services.
She said Participate Mumbai would allow companies, corporate organisations, NGOs, experts and citizens to contribute to civic projects through funding, material support, professional expertise or voluntary work.
The civic body is also working on systems to assess and compare the performance of different departments and wards, she said.
According to Bhide, Participate Mumbai will connect external expertise and resources with the city's needs, while the partnership with Samagra will focus on strengthening the BMC's internal administrative capacity and service delivery.
During the event, information booklets on Participate Mumbai and the Samagra initiative were unveiled.
Hindustan Unilever also handed over a Rs 25 crore CSR contribution to the BMC for the development of 10 new facility centres in Mumbai.
The event was attended by Skills, Employment, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Minister and Mumbai Suburban district guardian minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Mayor Ritu Tawde, Deputy Mayor Sanjay Ghadi, BMC Commissioner Ashwini Bhide, civic officials, corporators, employees and representatives from the corporate and voluntary sectors.
